A Proper Funeral
by Kelliestar
Summary: After Hiccup finds a rather disgusting surprise in Gobber's forge, he decides to show an eager Toothless what a Viking funeral is, and discovers there's more to the "funeral" than what either of them expected.


"It looks bad, Stoick."

"How bad?"

"It's not healing, I'll tell you that. He's not gonna be able to walk with that anymore. It's burned beyond repair. The skin's already peeled off all the way. We can't do a thing about it."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying…he'll either have to be crippled the rest of his life…or we'll have to cut it off completely."

"Cut it off? After all that he's been through, Gobber, he'll be devastated!"

"Imagine how much worse it'll be for him when he realizes he can't ride Toothless anymore, or even walk. At least I can make a prosthetic for him, but to just leave him immobile? Do you really want to do that to him, Stoick?"

"…You're right…How do you think he'll take it?"

"He's a strong boy, and he's made a lot of friends to help him through. If not now, he'll get used to it soon."

*****

…Why had he kept it?

Hiccup cradled the bundled, foul-smelling lump, wanting to vomit but for some reason able to keep his digestive fluids in place. It was damp and putrid, stained by blood, dirtied by burnt, decaying skin, peeling and chipping off its host and buried in the fibers of the moldy blanket.

Why had Gobber kept it? It was useless, it was dead – it was _disgusting_ – why would he still have it?

Toothless laid next to Hiccup as he sat outside the forge in confusion and nausea. He sniffed the lump in his master's arms, curious to the smell. He pressed his nose against the lump, sniffing again and immediately pulling back in revulsion, sidestepping five feet from Hiccup.

"Good thinking," Hiccup weakly responded. "This isn't something you'd wanna eat."

He breathed through his mouth to avoid the smell of the lump, but it was strong enough to taste it. Shakily, he unraveled the cloth again, stiffening at the anxiety of seeing it again. He reluctantly pulled away the last fold of cloth, revealing to himself the scorched, decaying toes of what was once his leg. He suppressed a gag, his chest jolting as a warm liquid rose up in his throat and settled back down. He calmed himself, breathing through his mouth again to ease his turning stomach.

He pulled back the rest of the cloth, staring down at the amputated limb with rising dread. It was completely scarred, his skin, other than the thin pieces flaking off, completely singed away. The rotting muscles and yellowing bones of his leg were revealed to him, mold and fungi patching where his leg was severed. The jagged bone stuck out barely from the leg, mold growing from the dried blood. Upon closer inspection, he spotted small holes in his calf, new homes for flesh-eating infestations. It almost depressed him. It was only a month, and his leg was already infested by Thor knows what.

As he stared down at the decomposing leg, a maggot wiggled out of his fleshy muscle and crawled some inches to a new destination, burrowing into the plumper part of his calf. He dropped the leg instantly, frightening a family of maggots out of his calf as he felt a warm liquid jump back into his throat. He dashed to a nearby barrel, clasping his hand over his mouth as it filled with chunky, burning juices. He yanked the barrel aside, gripping its sides as he vomited violently into its mouth. The contents of his stomach splashed against the barrel bottom, forming a small pool of thick yellow liquid. He panted heavily, sweating from the stress on his body when he felt his stomach twinge again. Another flow of vomit exploded out of him, forcing its way out again each time Hiccup was forced to smell the rancid fumes or look at the mucky puddle.

His body suddenly fell limp. He felt another twinge, but this time he only gagged. His stomach slowly settled, and his vision went hazy. He slid to his knees, being careful not to knock the barrel over, and rolled onto his back, staring up at the fuzzy blue sky.

The ground began to shake as heavy feet made their way over to the adolescent Viking. A large black figure looked down at Hiccup, shading the sun as its big green eyes blinked down at him. Toothless gently nudged Hiccup's shoulder in concern, fanning him with his tail.

Despite his previous haziness, Hiccup pushed himself into a sitting position, giving Toothless a weary smile and rewarding him with a scratch on the head. "Thanks, buddy."

Toothless reared his head back, making subtle retching sounds before rolling out his tongue, dropping the regurgitated severed leg onto Hiccup's lap, moldy cloth and all. Hiccup gagged again, at the sight and at the thought that Toothless actually swallowed it, and pulled himself back up to the barrel. To his shock and relief, he had nothing left to vomit.

He sighed and sat back down, trying to erase the image from his mind. Toothless rolled the leg back to Hiccup, who shook his head.

"Never do that again," he groaned, letting out a small sick belch.

Toothless innocently sat down, sniffing Hiccup's hair. He laughed and rubbed the dragon's nose, but his eyes remained on the leg. He glanced at his metal prosthetic, wondering if Gobber was thinking of reattaching it at one point. But at this state of decomposition, it was downright impossible. Did he just forget to throw it away after he cut it off?

Hiccup wrapped the leg up again, shivering in disgust. "So…what do we do with _this_?"

Of course, Toothless didn't answer. For a while he stared at the leg with him, then trotted to Hiccup's bad leg. Carefully, he bit and pulled the attachment off, with some protest from Hiccup before he saw Toothless pushing the severed leg against his leg stump.

Hiccup couldn't help but smile, pushing away the leg and reattaching his prosthetic one. "Sorry, we can't do that. It's already dead." He chuckled, patting the metal leg. "I'm just stuck with this."

Toothless purred sadly, flopping down and resting his head on Hiccup's lap. Hiccup cast a worried and pitying expression toward the small Night Fury. Toothless was a smart dragon, and was very attached to him. He must have taken a lot of grief over not being able to save Hiccup's leg.

He gently scratched Toothless' nose, resting his cheek on his scaly black head. "Toothless…It wasn't your fault…Things like this, they just happen…"

Nonetheless, Toothless groaned, sadly swishing his tail. Hiccup stared at the damage he did to Toothless' tail and felt immense guilt for what he'd done the past month. Because of him, he was trapped on land, not able to get back home. If Hiccup never found him after that, he would've starved to death. Even if he was found, whoever found him would've killed him in some nasty way.

"…I'm sorry."

Toothless picked up his head, turning to Hiccup in confusion.

"It's my fault you lost part of your tail." He stared at Toothless' tail, which stopped swishing. "You were just scared. I was trying to hurt you for my own…stupid…stupid pride." His head dropped in shame. "I'm sorry."

Toothless, seeing his master so guilt-ridden, offered a small whimper of sympathy and licked Hiccup's face. Hiccup smiled again, though a little grossed out considering what was in his mouth shortly before.

His eyes fell on the leg once more. A chuckle bubbled out of him. "We could give it a Viking funeral."

Toothless tilted his head with a small "Urk?"

"When Vikings die," Hiccup explained, "their bodies are put on a ship and sent out to sea. Sometimes they're just sent out so the ship can sink, and other times the ships are set on fire." He laughed. "It was a good leg. Never let me down in my most dire times." He pretended to cry, hugging the leg. "He sacrificed himself to save Berk...He was so noble…"

With a grunt, Toothless trotted off to the forge, leaving Hiccup alone and confused with a severed leg. After a few minutes, he returned with large boards of wood in his mouth, dropping the pile before Hiccup.

Hiccup stared down at the boards, then back up at Toothless. "Are you seriou- "

Toothless returned to the forge before Hiccup could finish, retrieving even more boards for him. He went back and forth from Hiccup to the forge three more times until a pile the size of Hiccup, sitting down at least, sat before him. Finally, Toothless laid a blanket on top of the boards, and sat down.

Hiccup pointed to the pile, astounded at how well Toothless could understand him. "You seriously wanna do this."

Toothless nudged at a board with his nose, pushing it toward Hiccup.

Defeated, Hiccup let out a sigh, wondering if they could really do this by nightfall. "All right. Let's get to work."

It didn't look too bad. It took seven hours for him to finish (and another hour to drag to shore), but the small makeshift boat came out pretty decent. Hiccup felt he overdid it a little, trying to make it look exactly like a Viking ship. They were only sending his leg out to sea, and it wasn't even a real funeral. Even so, he was proud of his work, and what was once a pile of useless wood now stood a head taller than Hiccup, ready to set sail on a voyage to Valhalla.

By the time they stood at the shore, it was almost midnight. A full moon hung over Berk, watching the spectacle of Hiccup and Toothless take place. Hiccup had countless splinters and cuts on his hands now, but Toothless stomped in excitement, eager to see a Viking funeral. Hiccup found it a bit ironic to be cheerful at a funeral, but decided not to mention it.

"Okay," Hiccup began after setting the leg inside the boat. "You're gonna have to help me push this off land. And for the sake of Berk and Odin, let's not set a month-old severed leg on fire."

Toothless nodded, and pushed the boat with his head while Hiccup shoved with his shoulder. Soon their feet touched on wet sand, then their toes met the cold waters of the sea. After a while, Hiccup glanced down at his metal leg, worrying it would rust, but returned his attention to the boat.

Eventually Hiccup was up to his waist in cold water, still pushing the boat with Toothless, who almost looked like he would drown any second. It was barely beginning to float on its own, but they only had a few more yards to go.

"We're almost there, boy," Hiccup panted. "Just push it a little more and…"

Hiccup let out a yelp and nearly fell in the water. Toothless stopped to help, lifting him back up as Hiccup grabbed the top of the boat. He looked down into the water, wondering what happened to make him fall.

His prosthetic had come loose underwater. It was already bent from its original position, the water threatening to pull it away and send it out to sea. A small panic started up his heart at this realization. He couldn't adjust it right there in the middle of the water, but he couldn't just let it float away. If he did either one, he could lose his balance and fall in, maybe even get pulled out to sea himself.

Gripping tightly to the boat, he looked up at Toothless. "Toothless, we got one shot at this. On three, we both push as hard as we can."

The water around them grew violent, beginning to toss Hiccup around a bit. Toothless pushed harder against the boat, and Hiccup pressed himself against the boat, struggling to keep his balance for just a few seconds longer.

"One…two…THREE!"

With a strong shove, the ship began to float on its own, leaving Hiccup to fall into the rushing water. He squinted into the salty water, his eyes stinging fiercely as he tried to find his leg in time. A blurry gray figure rushed past his face, and Hiccup, by force of the waves, soon followed. He flailed his arms as hard as he could, both to regain control of himself and to grab a hold of the metal leg. He stretched out his arm at the prosthetic, wrapping his hand around the cold metal, but still unable to control himself.

Just as he was beginning to lose consciousness, a large set of teeth bit down on his stomach and pulled him out of the water. Hiccup gasped for air as Toothless leapt out of the water and glided back to shore, carefully dropping him onto the sand. Hiccup coughed violently, hugging his stomach in pain, but thankful Toothless had, once again, saved him from certain death.

He pushed himself up to reattach the metal leg, lifting his shirt to see if Toothless had done any damage to him. To both their surprise, Toothless only left small bruises.

He glanced up at Toothless. "Wish me luck explaining that."

Toothless rolled his eyes. Rolling them back at him, Hiccup leaned over to attach his leg again, testing its sturdiness as he stood back up.

Once he was sure it was set back in place, Hiccup looked back out at the ship with Toothless. There in the sea it set out on an eternal journey, carrying with it a part of Hiccup's past. It was actually very beautiful; it even got Hiccup a bit teary-eyed, although he wasn't sure why at first. But there in the distance, everything he sacrificed to get to where he was now, was at last being put to rest. He didn't know how long they stood out there, watching it shrink into oblivion, but when the ship was at last a dot, he realized this wasn't just a funeral planned for Toothless' delight.

This was his own closure.

Wiping his eyes, he turned to Toothless, who was still staring out at sea. "Well, there's your funeral. Considering I nearly _died_, I hope you liked it."

Toothless happily responded by licking Hiccup's face, knocking him over. Hiccup got himself back up, chuckling, and climbed onto the dragon's back.

"Let's go home, boy."

*****

Gobber stared into the empty drawer that once held Hiccup's leg he kept forgetting to throw away.

"Hmph…"He scratched his head in confusion. "I could've sworn it was here yesterday…"

He shrugged and closed the drawer, glad that somehow the leg took care of itself, and observed the rest of the forge, noticing something was off.

"Where's all my wood?!"


End file.
